In recent years, an imprint method has attracted attentions as one of the processes used for forming semiconductor devices. In this imprint method, a template serving as an original mold is pressed onto a photo-setting organic material (resist) applied on a substrate. The resist is cured in this state, and then the template is removed from the cared resist to perform mold separation. Consequently, a resist pattern is formed on the substrate.
However, according to the imprint method, when the template is pressed on the resist, stresses are concentrated at certain areas of the template. Due to this, there is a case where the service life of the template is shortened. Accordingly, in the imprint method, it is desired to uniformize the stresses applied to the template when the template is pressed on the resist.